It was unnaturally dark when Twilight jerked into consciousness. A sweeping, echoing, endless darkness that she didn't recognize. She perked her ears lazily and tried to sit up, only to find her head brushing immediately against the ceiling. Was this some kind of container she was in?
"Spike?" she called out. She waited. When his cheerful voice didn't ring back, Twilight frowned and pressed her hooves against the material in front of her. It was wooden and cold. Solidly constructed and smelled strongly of pine. It was a crate of some kind. She tried to rock herself back and forth in the confines, but found the box surprisingly sturdy, as if it were being held in place by some means. She frowned.
"Spike?!" she called again. She waited. She listened. She frowned. There was no responce, and this time, Twilight had a feeling she wouldn't get one.
She would not panic. That much she was sure of. No. She didn't need to panic, because there wasn't a problem. Twilight tapped the dark, dirty wood with a hoof and listened quietly. There was no response, but that wasn't a reason to panic at all. That was silly. She was fine. This was simply a mistake. Normally, ponies did not go to sleep and awaken inside of a box. That was unheard of. No, no, surely there was some sort of insane mistake going on here. Some crazy-magical mishap that would explain why she'd gone to bed in her cozy, comfy castle and woken up inside of a cold, dirty box.
There was an explanation, and afterward, they would laugh about it. She laughed now, in fact. A loud, echoing whoop of laughter that faded into the endless silence surrounding her. All she had to do was wait patiently for her friends. Yes. They would come to rescue her. Surely they were looking for her now. She'd be free any second. She just needed to wait it out...
Her throat was sore from yelling. From screaming for help. From crying. From cursing and snarling and barking at a piece of wood. Who locks a pony in a wooden box and leaves them alone?! What kind of psycho would do this to her? She gave a huffy snort and feebly struck the darkened wood. It didn't budge. Even Tirek had the guts to face her in combat. This was just spineless. Some villain was doing this. Surely. Chrysalis, perhaps. Surely, some filthy scum who had heard of all of her previous victories and had decided to do away with the grand gestures of attempting to fight her. Instead, they simply sealed her in a box and left her to rot. Cowards. She would escape though. She would find a way to free herself, or her friends would rescue her, and she would have her revenge. Speaking of her friends, where were they?! Haven't they figured out she'd been missing yet? What was taking them so long?! Couldn't they find her?! Idiots the lot of them. Ugh.
Pinkie...?
Pinkie, if you're out there, please let me out.
It was a great prank, Pinkie, and you really got me, but I'd like to come out now...
Pinkie?
Pinkie please
Pinkie please
Pinkie Please
Pinkie Please
Pinkie Please
Pinkie
Please
Wa-was this something I did?
Something I said?
D-did I upset someone or something?
Just tell me what I did.
PLEASE!!
I'll fix it, I swear! I promise!!
Can anypony hear me?
I'll do whatever you want,
I'll do anything!
just let me out
Somepony?
Please
Let me out
She lost track of time. At least, she thought she did. Not that there was such a thing inside of the box. She tapped at the wood again and sighed. The box was too tight for her to get any decent weight behind a hit, and she wasn't positioned in such a way to perform a kick. Her forelegs and her limbs her scrunched together and (luckily) her wings were mercifully numb. For whatever reason, she could feel no passive mana in the air to draw her magic from, so teleportation was out, as was the ability to even enchant her horn with light. Not that it mattered. There was painfully little to look at inside of the box. Simple wood pieced together to form a tight, pony-sized square that was just large enough for her. All she could do, was wait for her friends to find her and try to figure out why she was here. Was this a punishment of some kind? Some terrible punishment for all the things she'd screwed up doing as a new princess? Was Celestia behind this? Was that why no pony came to her aid? Did she somehow deserve this? She realized she was crying.
She would curl into a ball if she could move.
She would cry if she had any tears left.
She would scream if her throat wasn't raw.
She would beg if she had any pony to talk to.
But there was no pony. Just her alone with her thoughts.
She thought about how much she missed the sunlight. She thought how much she missed the books in her library. She thought about Rainbow Dash, and her speed, and Rarity with her grace, Pinkie and her jokes and Fluttershy and her warmth. She thought of Applejack and her food Spike with all of his endless optimism.
It was the thought she'd never see them again, that stuck with her.
Twilight pressed her hooves into the wood and pushed. Hard. She pushed with all her might, giving it everything she had which wasn't much, considering how tight the space around her was. The wood flexed and bulged and for a brief, terrible second a trickle of dirt splashed against her nose, confirming the worst of her suspicions about her predicament.
It was not a box she was trapped it.
It was a coffin
She'd been buried alive. The idea gnawed at the back of her mind, but up until now, she'd been managing to fend it off. If she thought about it, it would lead to hysteria and panic. No, no, best to keep calm and scientific about things. She'd been ignoring the evidence; the lack of magic, no response when calling out for help, her lack of friends, but now that it was concrete, Twilight began to sob. At least she tried too. There was a new horror to be found in desperately wanting to release an emotion but without the means to do so. Still, her eyes burned anyway. Buried alive with no pony to help her. No pony knew where she was; Heck, she didn't know where she was! She was going to die, cold and alone in a box somewhere. Some unmarked grave nopony knew about! This couldn't be her fate! No! NO!! She screamed again, yelling at the top of her lungs. She could feel flecks of blood splattering from her burning throat, but she didn't care! There HAD to be someone who could hear her! Somepony had to be out there to hear her! She beat at the wood, cursing it with every word that she knew, throwing herself in what little space she had against the wooden wall until she was exhausted. Then she listened.
A moment passed. A second. There was no response. She swallowed. Things would be fine. It was fine, though. It was okay. All she had to do was keep calm. She had a momentary freak out, but it was over now. Calm. Keep calm. Her friends were on the way! They would save her. They'd come along any second now. She was sure of it. They HAD to be coming by now, right?! There wasn't much time left. All she had to do was wait and not panic any more than she already had. All she needed was to keep busy. To keep her mind occupied while she waited to keep from slipping into another panic attack. She began to drift through the different runes she knew. She could see the chart in her head, similar to the periodic table of elements. She spent long hours staring at that chart and memorizing every rune on it while attending Celestia's school. Aril, Ayar, Au, Bale, Brim, Bu, Byuar... She yawned quietly. Really, a nap could be just the thing she needed. It would calm her down and pass the time while she waited for her friends. Yes. A nap. That sounded like a good plan. Somewhere in the back of her mind, a muffled voice was screaming at her. Really, though, it didn't matter. She was suddenly so so so tired, and a nap was sounding better and better. Caim, Cine, Citros, Din, Dim, Dara.... She was crying again. She didn't really understand why. It seemed like an odd thing to do before taking a nap. It was strange, sure, but it didn't bother her all that much. She was tired, and her brain felt fuzzy. Another yawn. If she could, she'd stretch herself out, but then, all of her limbs had gone numb by this point. Yes, a nap was precisely what she needed and really it was all she could do.
Just a little nap. Maybe an hour or so. She'd be with her friends when she woke up. The idea made her grin, and with that in mind, quietly, Twilight closed her eyes.
Author's Note
Experimental horror story. A late Halloween tale that was held back by various computer issues. A lot of ponies aren't going to like the ambiguous ending or beginning, but thats the 'experimental part' This might have been better tackled by some better writer, but the first step of getting good at something is to suck at it. ;)
Another 'sketch' of a story. I find the idea of waking up in a box, no idea how you got there, why you got there, or who put you there, to be particularly scary. I mean, the idea is that you go to sleep one night and everything is normal, only to wake up and find out absolutely nothing is normal. Things changed in the expanse of a few short hours and you weren't there to interact or control anything happening to you.
The numerous spaces are there to represent Twilight's slow decent into the 7 stages of grief, realizing early on she was going to die, but refusing to actively acknowledge it. At the very end of the story, all she has left is hope, and accepts her fate. Maaaaybe her friends will get to her in time. The spacing also provides some meta symbolism in that, yes, she's buried alive, forcing the reader to scroll down. I wanted to go for a 6 pages = 6 feet sort of thing, but perhaps that was delving into the concept too far. :P
